Nov.4,1864

                  Today the conference started.   John A. MacDonald and George-Etienne Cartier opened the conference and began the debates.  Starting off with everyone introducing themselves, everyone was quiet and little was said.  However, as soon as positions were stated on the intercolonial railway, the room erupted into debate and there was no break in it until the conference was closed for the night.

                  At the start, only Canada East and Canada West, along with New Brunswick, wanted the railway as it was proposed.  Prince Edward Island were not decided and stated they could be persuaded to accept, if people could show them how it would benefit them.  Newfoundland refused to accept unless they were given extra land if we purchased Rupert’s Land.  My colleagues and I, from Nova Scotia, wanted the railway to be extended to Halifax rather than stop at Truro as was proposed.  We quickly got Canada East and West and New Brunswick to agree with us, which I feel was a good start to the day, though not having to debate would be so much better.

                  Prince Edward Island seemed convinced that there would be no way the railway could benefit them.  No matter how many times my colleagues and I from the colonies of Canada East, Canada West, and New Brunswick explained it to them, they did not understand that their ports freezing in the winter would not affect the movement of their goods from Charlottetown to the mainland and the railway.  William Henry Pope and the rest of his colleagues, mainly John Hamilton Gray, all refused to let that matter drop, even after we explained it to them time after time.  Eventually they understood that as their goods were mainly agricultural, the goods they wanted sold would all be brought to the mainland before the ports froze.  Then came the matter of transporting the goods to the mainland.  This issue annoyed me, as they refused to pay the small fee to have a ship transport the goods across the channel to Pictou, where we agreed to have the railway extended to before moving on to Halifax.  In the end New Brunswick agreed to provide the ships to pick up the goods of these selfish people, who would not pay a small extra fee to strengthen the economy of our future country.  I think that this was a good sacrifice made by New Brunswick; it proves to me they understand that sacrifices must be made if we want to have a strong country.